Created in 2013, Media Arts and Practice (MA+P) is the seventh degree-granting division of the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

Degrees and Programs

The division offers two primary degree programs: a BA and a PhD in Media Arts + Practice. The PhD program, better known as iMAP, began accepting students in 2007. It is a practice-based PhD program in which students develop skills in both the theory and practice of media arts while doing doctoral level research that may be realized in an exclusively digital form. The degree was conceived by

Anne Friedberg Anne Friedberg was chair of the Critical Studies Division in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California and President-elect of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. An author, historian and theorist of modern media ...

and Jen Stein with help from the program's founding director Steve F. Anderson. Other advisory faculty members include

Holly Willis Holly Willis is a Professor and Chair of the Media Arts and Practice division in the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Previously, she served as Associate Dean of Research and Founding Chair of Media Arts and Practice, as well as Director of Academ ...

, Scott Fisher, Kathy Smith,

Mary Sweeney Mary Sweeney is an American director, writer, film editor and film producer. She was briefly married to American film director David Lynch, whom she collaborated with for 20 years. Sweeney worked with Lynch on several films and television se ...

Tara McPherson Tara McPherson (born April 7, 1976, in San Francisco, California) is an American artist based in New York. McPherson creates paintings, murals, poster art, and designer toys, within the New Contemporary Art movement. Biography Tara McPherson s ...

Mark Bolas Mark Bolas is a researcher exploring perception, agency, and intelligence. He is a Professor of Interactive Media in the USC Interactive Media Division, USC School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, Director of their In ...

, Aniko Imre, Henry Jenkins, Andreas Kratky and

Norman Hollyn Norman Hollyn (May 11, 1952 – March 17, 2019) was an American film editor and Michael Kahn Endowed Chair in Editing at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Biography Hollyn was born in New York on May 11, 1952, and ...

. The BA in Media Arts + Practice, which began accepting students in 2013, is "an interdisciplinary storytelling program combining the study of contemporary digital media with hands-on production and research." Students learn to create media across several different platforms, such as video or interactive programming, while also studying the history and theory of media. The curriculum emphasizes the use of emerging technologies (such as virtual reality) to develop new narrative models. There is also an emphasis on media activism and social change. The division also offers three undergraduate minors (Digital Studies, Future Cinema and Media and Social Change), an undergraduate honors designation (Honors in Multimedia Scholarship), and a graduate certificate program (Digital Media and Culture).

Research

MA+P faculty and students actively participate in several arts-based research projects. Arts-based research is a practice by which artists and creative practitioners use their practical skillset as a method of developing original research questions and thereby contributing to the process of knowledge production. Arts-based research is unique in that it is not predetermined by desired end results; it borrows and combines many different research methodologies; and it often involves collaboration with professionals from other art and non-art fields. Research labs at the

include the Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center, the Game Innovation Lab, the Mobile and Environmental Media Lab, the Mixed Reality Lab, the Scalar Lab, the Transient Media Lab and the World Building Media Lab.

References

External links

Media Arts and Practice website

Official Academic Information About the Program
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